What animal is a walrus?

Walrus, as its name implies, is an elephant in the sea. It has a huge body, thick and wrinkled skin, sparse bristles, small eyes and poor eyesight. It is 3-4m long and weighs about 1, 300kg. It has two long teeth. Different from the elephant's big head, big ears, long nose and stout limbs on land, its limbs have degenerated into fins because it has adapted to life in the water, so it can't walk on land like an elephant. It can only crawl on the ice by the joint action of the back fin foot bending forward and the fangs piercing the ice. Therefore, the scientific name of walrus, literally translated in Chinese, means walking with teeth, with a short nose and lack of ear shells, which looks very similar.

Basic information

gingkgo

walrus

Binomial nomenclature/system

Odobernus Rosmarus

boundary

animal kingdom

door

Chordata

summary

mammal

eye

Pingboda

The branch of academic or vocational research.

Walrus family

belong to

walrus

grow

walrus

Distribution area

Mainly living in the Arctic Ocean, with parts distributed in the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

catalogue

launch

1 overview

2 biological classification

3 Introduction

4 Physical characteristics

Body type 5

Six characteristics

6. 1 diving expert

6.2 Use sound to locate prey

6.3 collective defense

6.4 distribution

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8 quantity

9 living habits

1 overview

Walrus, as its name implies, is an elephant in the sea. It has a huge body, thick and wrinkled skin, sparse bristles, small eyes and poor eyesight. It is 3-4m long and weighs about 1, 300kg. It has two long teeth. Different from the elephant's big head, big ears, long nose and stout limbs on land, its limbs have degenerated into fins because it has adapted to life in the water, so it can't walk on land like an elephant. It can only crawl on the ice by the joint action of the back fin foot bending forward and the fangs piercing the ice. Therefore, the scientific name of walrus, literally translated in Chinese, means walking with teeth, with a short nose and lack of ear shells, which looks very similar. walrus

2 biological classification

Pinpoda and Odobenidae only contain 1 walrus, which live in the Arctic Ocean. walrus

3 Introduction

In the high latitude ocean, besides whales, walruses are second only to elephant seals (males can weigh 2-3 tons), and elephants are the fourth largest mammals. Some people call them "indigenous" residents of the northern hemisphere. /kloc-In the 9th century, walrus was destroyed because of its wanton killing, and zoologists once solemnly declared that walrus had disappeared from the earth. Perhaps it is because the fertility of survivors who escaped the catastrophe has doubled in five years, and the coastal elephants have flourished again in the past hundred years. If there is an island only 3 square kilometers away from San Francisco at100km, there are130,000 walruses living there. English should be walrus.

4 Physical characteristics

Walruses can be up to 5 meters long and weigh 1.5 tons. The most striking thing is that a pair of huge tusks, whether male or female, are very large, which is different from other pteropods. These tusks are actually canine teeth that grow from the upper jaw. Like ivory, they grow all their lives. Such as digging for food, climbing rocks or attacking enemies. Its limbs have degenerated because of adapting to life in the water, and it can't walk on land like an elephant. This tooth is an indispensable tool or weapon. Walruses have long forelegs, accounting for about a quarter of their body length, and their hind feet can bend forward, so they walk on land. Ears are just slightly thicker skin (similar to seals) without cartilage support. The huge body (second only to the elephant trunk seal) looks heavy when sleeping in on ice or on the coast all day, but it can move quickly in the water. The transportation was carried out at sea. In order to get their ivory, oil and meat, humans have been killed in large numbers, and the existing number is very small compared with before.

Body type 5

They live in shallow waters near the coast and love to live in groups, so they always appear in large groups, ranging from dozens to hundreds. Walruses and seals belong to the same family, but their skin is rough, like the skin of an old oak tree. Their flippers are extremely short. They also have a pair of long teeth and tentacles, and their little red eyes are narrowed like an old slut. Walruses are much more agile than they look. It can swim constantly, slide forward leisurely like a soft airship, and swim safely in the rough waters near the rugged rocks. Walrus, as a mud filter, can suck out hundreds of small aquatic shellfish from the bottom of the sea in one meal. Walrus' gregarious habits make it easy for humans to kill them. If there are similar injuries, other walruses will definitely come to help, regardless of their own safety, and let hunters kill collectively. Arctic walruses used to be widely active in the Arctic Circle, but now they only exist in some small areas of northern Greenland, Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean.

Walruses are ugly, but they are usually very friendly. They only growl when they are harassed. An angry walrus will attack a big ship. Its two tusks are not only used to dig shellfish food, but also used as offensive weapons when necessary. Eskimos not only eat the meat, liver and intestines of walruses, but also dig up undigested shellfish in their stomachs. They chewed up shells and swallowed them. Hunters can often pour many fresh shellfish out of walrus' stomachs and put them in their mouths to chew immediately. Walrus meat tastes the worst among all kinds of meat eaten by Eskimos.

Six characteristics

6. 1 diving expert

Walruses can generally swim in the water for 20 minutes and dive to a depth of 500 meters. A single walrus can dive into the record deep water layer of 1500 meters, which greatly exceeds the maximum diving depth of ordinary military submarines of 300 meters. Walruses can stay underwater for 2 hours after diving into the sea floor. Once they need fresh air, they can surface in 3 minutes without decompression.

Walruses have such amazing diving skills, mainly due to their extremely rich blood. A walrus weighing 2-4 tons has 20% blood. Human blood accounts for only 7% of body weight, which is nearly two-thirds less than walrus. Because walruses have a lot of blood and oxygen, it is not surprising that they dive in the ocean for a long time.

6.2 Use sound to locate prey

Walruses are used to living in the deep waters of the ocean, and sunlight cannot reach here. Like bats and dolphins, walruses have no special visual function. They hunt by sound localization. Walruses like to live in groups and are lazy. They spend most of their limited lives (according to records, walruses live for 45 years) sleeping in. Therefore, hundreds of walruses can often be seen sleeping peacefully on the ice or on the coast. Long-term experience in struggle for existence keeps walruses on their guard. At this time, there is a walrus as a guard. Once the enemy is found, the guard will wake up the sleeping partner loudly; Or wake up the compatriots with tusks around them and pass them on in turn. Sometimes, in order to defend more carefully, they will arrange a second defender in the water.

Walrus looks heavy, but it is smart. When it dives into the sea floor in search of food, its huge teeth are skillfully used to dig out sediments, and its sensitive lips and tentacles are also detected and recognized. When it comes into contact with food, it bites the shells of its favorite clams and oil snails with its teeth and then eats their bodies.

Northern walruses mainly live on the west coast of the United States. It sometimes appears on the mainland coast and sometimes in the Hawaiian islands. It turns out that they roam back and forth, and the roaming schedule varies from male to female: the male walrus roams about 2 1 0,000 kilometers, and the female walrus roams about10.9 million kilometers. The roaming route of the South China Sea elephants is between South America and Antarctica.

6.3 collective defense

Walrus is a monster, but it is afraid of arctic whales and polar bears. Polar bears can break their skulls with infinite strength and then have a good meal. When the walrus meets the killer whale in the water, the two sides have already started a life-and-death battle. At this time, walruses adopt the strategy of collective defense and rise up to defend themselves. The road is one foot high, and the devil is ten feet high. The cunning killer whale adopts the policy of divide and rule.

In the early 1930s, in order to obtain walrus oil, people killed walrus. Later, due to the strict prohibition of the American and Mexican governments, this trend was curbed, and a small number of walruses fleeing the Pacific coast of Mexico were spared. Nowadays, the fate of animals once listed as international concern and protection is improving, and groups of walruses appear on the southern coast of America.

6.4 distribution

Walruses mainly live in arctic waters, which can also be called arctic endemic animals, but they can travel short distances. So in the Pacific Ocean, from the Bering Strait to the Chukchi Sea, the East Siberian Sea and the Lapf Sea; It can be found in the Atlantic Ocean, from Greenland to baffin island, from Iceland and Spitsbergen to the Barents Sea. Due to its wide distribution, different environmental conditions have caused certain differences in walruses. Therefore, biologists divide walrus into two subspecies, namely, Pacific walrus and Atlantic walrus. They go north from May to July every year and go south in late autumn.

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The reproductive rate of walrus is extremely low, and only one baby walrus is born every 2 ~ 3 years. Pregnancy is about 12 months, and lactation is 1 year. The newborn baby walrus is only about 1.2 meters long and weighs about 50 kilograms. It is covered with brown fluff to keep out the cold. During breastfeeding, the mother walrus holds her beloved baby walrus with her forelimbs, and sometimes lets the baby walrus ride on her back to ensure safe and healthy growth. Even after weaning, because the baby's teeth are not fully developed, she can't get enough food to resist the invading enemy alone, so she will stay with the mother walrus for 3-4 years. When the teeth grow to 10 cm, they start to make a living.

8 quantity

Walrus is a rare animal and an economic marine animal. Due to the competitive hunting in many countries, the number of walruses is dropping sharply from millions two or three centuries ago to below 70,000 today. Walruses are a bit like elephants on land in appearance. Walrus has a huge and ugly body, rough and wrinkled skin, narrow eyes and prominent canine teeth. Walrus is a good swimmer, and its performance in water is much more sensitive than on land. In order to adapt to marine life, walruses can also change their body color. Because walruses have a strong gregarious habit, if their companions are injured, they will definitely help and never abandon them because of their own safety, which makes it easy for human beings to catch them; 1972 promulgated the International Regulations for the Protection of Marine Mammals, which listed walruses as protected objects and prohibited arbitrary killing.

9 living habits

Walrus's huge body, strange appearance and strange living habits not only surprised people, but also puzzled scientists. Its head is round, its mouth is short and wide, its nose is thick, and its upper canine teeth form tusks as long as 40 cm -90 cm, each weighing more than 4 kg. Male walruses can reach 5 meters long and weigh 4 tons. Walrus' hind limbs can bend forward and stick to the lower abdomen, so that it can move forward on land. Walruses live in groups, and thousands of heads gather together. When summer comes, they swim to the shores of the mainland and islands in droves, or climb to the big ice mountain to bask in the sun.

Walrus has poor eyesight and his eyes are narrowed like an old man who lacks vitality. They love to sleep late. They spend most of their lives lying on ice or sleeping in water. When sleeping on your back, half of your back is out of the water like a floating hill, fluctuating with the waves. When you sleep straight, your head and shoulders are exposed, which is convenient for breathing. Why can walruses sleep straight? It turns out that it has an airbag in its pharynx. When it is filled with air, it is suspended in water like a balloon. Walruses have a very sensitive sense of smell and hearing. When they sleep, a walrus patrols around and stays alert. In any case, it will scream like a bull, wake up the sleeping walrus and flee quickly. Walruses are huge, but very agile. They can swim between rough rocks and cross hundreds of kilometers of straits!

Walrus has a layer of fat about three inches thick under its skin, which can keep out the cold and keep warm. The color of walrus' skin on land is different from that in sea water, because on land, blood vessels expand when heated, which is brownish red. In water, blood vessels contract and blood is squeezed out from the subcutaneous fat layer, which enhances the heat insulation ability of seawater, so it is white.

Since the walrus period in Svalbard, Norway, little has been known about the habits of walruses, especially the role of big fangs, which puzzled scientists: if it is a self-defense weapon, it has no rivals in high latitudes, and white bears stay away from it. Fierce killer whales may chase it, but walruses will always "walk is the best policy" and they will never compete with killer whales with their fangs. So Fangfang wants to increase the load on walrus's head and make it easy to dive in deep water? If so, doesn't this assumption increase the difficulty of walrus floating? Walruses sometimes climb icebergs with their tusks or use them against their opponents, but this does not explain the main purpose of tusks. In order to solve these mysteries, foreign scientists went to Hudson Bay, the hometown of walrus.

It turned out that Fang Fang was desperately plowing the ground at the bottom of the sea, and there were two furrows about 50 cm deep in the plowed place. When ploughing over 2 -3 meters, walrus stretches its forelimbs upstream, with two front flippers closed, holding the harvest friction and dragging a black "smoke" behind it. When swimming to the surface, it disperses its prey and turns to catch the meat of mollusks such as conch and shellfish according to the different sinking speed. How ingenious this is! The walrus' thick and hard beard also helps it capture food accurately in poor light (such as "extreme night" season). Of course, not all walruses live by eating mollusks, crustaceans or other animals. There is a walrus with a particularly fierce temperament, which eats the corpses of seals and sea rabbits and even chases ships to hurt people. This walrus has yellow fangs (usually white), and Eskimos are most afraid that it will hit the ship and cause great disaster.

Walruses begin to migrate every spring. The female walrus gives birth and then enters the mating period. The newborn baby walrus can weigh up to 40 kg, and its weight can soar to nearly 100 kg after one month of lactation. By the age of two, it can reach 2.5 meters long and weigh 500 kilograms, and then it will start to live independently. Elephants on the high seas are indifferent to baby walruses. During the mating season, they only care about jealousy and jealousy. They kill each other for their lovers, some die, and most of them leave many scars. But what is commendable is that once separated from the mother walrus, the former enmity between rival lovers was completely forgotten, and they soon formed a separate and friendly male group. Although the mother walrus does not regard her son as life like a seal, she is still a competent "mother". Mother and son live together and play with each other. "Mother" holds the "child" with her front fin, and sometimes lets the baby ride on her back, hug her neck or sleep on her. If the baby walrus is injured and dies, "mother" will do everything possible to get it buried in the water. Once, an Eskimo killed a baby walrus on the edge of the ice. When he was leaving with his prey, he was suddenly attacked by a female walrus coming out from behind. When he turned around and found out what had happened, the mother walrus had already dived into the water with the baby walrus's body. If the mother walrus is caught, the baby walrus will cry for her mother and will not leave after hunting the boat.

Walruses have other habits. For example, on land, they practice "fasting" and don't eat anything, which shows their unique metabolism. There is also a great difference in weight between the high seas elephant and the female walrus. A 2.5-meter-long female walrus weighs about 700 kilograms, which is half the weight of the same kind of male walrus, which is not found in other animals. Walruses are used to returning to their "hometown" to breed, and each child gives birth to one child. They do this year after year and never get lost.